What do you think "Adrift" was about, if you've finished it?

[gussmed]

I was expecting an explanation for the evacuated stations. I was expecting to interact with the Ghost Frigate in some story-related way. That didn't happen.

You have to meditate a few times, but it's not all that clear why.

The end rendezvous is a spaceship wreck. Not a particularly interesting or good one, either.

Best I can come up with is you're dead. This is a limited afterlife, like the one you can stick Artemis into. There's nobody on the stations because the sim doesn't support that. That ship at the end is your ship, and the grave you visit is your grave.

Just a wild guess, since I don't feel it's at all clear. I can't fit the Ghost Frigate into that, either. The Ghost Frigate is just kind of... there, not doing anything for half the expedition.

[Daedrius]

In the normal game it talks about a time when sentinels destroyed everything. Even attacking other sentinels. I think this is a dream about that period of time... maybe... just guessing.

Wiki Lore:

"One of these Boundary Failures describe that the Sentinels did go out of control once before and the entire universe had to be deleted from the multiverse. This could happen again, but this time unchecked, as the Atlas is slowly losing control of its own defense program. Some black box reports of crashed freighters also state that they come from a universe with different skies. Some of them were attacked by Sentinels which during their last moments fought among themselves for an unknown reason.

It is possible that those are the rogue sentinels which annihilated all life in their respective multiverses and had to be deleted by the Atlas Protection Program 'Telamon' in return. It is likely Telamon used some sentinels to fight the corrupted ones, before giving the order to wipe the universe clean. Similar behaviour can be seen in No Man's Sky, as some branches of sentinels are overly aggressive, although for now only to foreigners, especially the player who is accompanied by the Telamon AI as their guide."

[Raven]

If you want to try and dig deep, the story of the Mary Celeste, an abandoned ship discovered adrift in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872, appears in Sci Fi stories. For example in 'The Commonwealth Saga' ( Peter Hamilton), an ancient spacecraft called the Marie Celeste is found crashed on one of the Commonwealth planets. Could be a reference to both the Ghost Frigate and the final spaceship wreck. I think the Ghost Frigate is just a nod to various 'Marie Celeste' type stories, even 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Just a bit of Dev fun.

[gNg]

I don't think there's meant to be any real story to it. It's just a glimpse into the end of the universe and a good excuse for the devs to give us an expedition in a different setting with different challenges to face.

I liked it

[Maj. Crimes]

The as with all other NMS lore, esoteric gibberish.

[bigdgaff]

Originally posted by Maj. Crimes:

The as with all other NMS lore, esoteric gibberish.

Look up and gaze at the stars. Meditate on the wisdom gleaned from the expedition and how it relates to the journey you are on. Is it first? Is it last? Was this a memory of the cause of our journey? Was this a preview of the aftermath of our journey?

[Mr. Bufferlow]

As HG describes it : An alternative simulation where you are all alone. I think that is the gist of it. To the extent there is a story, it is just to support the need to travel to the end of the expedition.

HG is not going to win any awards for best story writing with this game. It is a sandbox so that is kind of expected.

[gussmed]

Originally posted by Maj. Crimes:

The as with all other NMS lore, esoteric gibberish.

I generally *hate* the dialog in various NMS lore bits when it gets "philosophical." I put quotes around that because I don't think it qualifies as actual philosophy, it's just kind of pretentious and philosophy adjacent.

That said, NMS does have actual lore, stories they're trying to tell. There's the First Spawn, for example, and everything connected to that. There's an actual story there. Atlas is a story too, even if I hate the stupid things Hello Games makes you say while progress through that. Sure, I'm thinking, "no, you twits, surrender or scream aren't the only valid responses here," but there's a story they're trying to tell none the less.

I had the distinct impression that they did have a story to Adrift. Yes, I know they've said the inspiration was to re-create the very early pre-release days of NMS where you were alone in the universe, but I think they did come up with a story. It's just too cryptically told for me to understand it.

Maybe I'm just reading something that isn't there, and there is no story.

The Ghost Frigate evoked Vandervecken for me, the Flying Dutchman, rather than Marie Celeste. Mostly because I'm a Niven fan and Vandervecken is part of the novel Protector. Which is why I was disappointed that you don't really seem to be connected to the Ghost Frigate in Adrift. It's just there.

[Bob Loblaw]

I chose to put Artemis in the simulated universe in the main game. In Adrift, I assumed I was subjected to the same fate, which was awesome to consider.

[Ancient Ways]

Adrift reminds me very much of a movie from 1985 called The Quiet Earth. Guy wakes up and, for whatever reason, discovers he's the last person on earth. Everyone else has just simply vanished overnight. Movie is about him dealing with that. Might not have heard of it because it's not a U.S. movie.

I honestly don't know if that is what HG intended, but the whole expansion and it's missions remind me of that movie.

The only thing that doesn't fit is the ghost frigate, but i think that's just an intended limited edition reward kind of thing.

[gussmed]

I've seen The Quiet Earth. I didn't think of it while playing. I did think of The Mark of Gideon from TOS Star Trek, which features Kirk on an empty Enterprise.

[randombattle]

Nanites turned everyone into worms.

[Rex Talon]

Abandoned assets already existed in the game. This was just a way to create a season of "content" without doing much work.

[poppetshadow]

"In space, no one can hear you scream."

[Raven]

Originally posted by poppetshadow:

"In space, no one can hear you scream."

Except yourself.

[kutyax]

Originally posted by Rex Talon:

Abandoned assets already existed in the game. This was just a way to create a season of "content" without doing much work.

i dont think its about lazyness.
every time they have to figure out something different.